Malawi girl campaigns for ‘No parenthood before adulthood’

A young HIV activist in Malawi is urging world leaders to consult with young people to provide them with better family planning.

Student Shyreene Mvula, 19, is living with HIV and says the importance of young people getting contraceptives is that they are not yet in stable relationships and are not sure of their future partners. But she believes most policies on family planning do not serve the interests of young people, including those living with HIV.

On 12-15 November the third International Conference on Family Planning, which is organised around the theme ‘Full Access, Full Choice’, takes place in Addis Ababa. It will be attended by thousands of health experts, advocates and political leaders, including Malawian President Joyce Banda.

Challenging political leaders

Speaking ahead of the conference, Shyreene said: “The youth experience natural sexual urges and they would like to experiment. As such, they need all the necessary information regarding contraceptives in order to have informed choices. Condoms should be available especially to young people living with HIV in order to reduce cases of infection.

“I have dreams to live the next 40 years, marry and raise my own children just like any other person. I don’t want to be different from anybody else; I want to live in a world free of stigma. I want a world where HIV and AIDS stories are told as a thing of the past.”

Earlier this year, at the first meeting of the UNAIDS and Lancet Commission: From AIDS To Sustainable Health, presided over by Malawian President Joyce Banda, Shyreene challenged political and health leaders to move with speed to eliminate HIV and consult with young people.

Shyreene said: “We have ambitions to be like you one day. Ambitions to be presidents, judges, ministers. If we are to achieve this, we ought to be consulted at every level in policy making.

Young people and reproductive health

According to 2012 estimates from the Malawi National AIDS Commission, there were about 11,000 new infections among children up to the age of 14, with 81,000 young women aged 15-24 living with HIV and almost 50,000 young men.

Young people face many challenges in Malawi due to new patterns of sexual behaviour, harmful cultural practices, premarital sex and lack of access to family planning education and services which leads to early and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

And young people are underserved generally in the current health care delivery system. Where sexual and reproductive health services are available, often they are not convenient, acceptable or accessible to young people.

“As young people we require not only basic information about our bodies, prevention of HIV and pregnancy, we also need age-appropriate services that address gender equality, empowerment, rights and responsibilities negotiation and decision making,” explained Shyreene.

Malawi’s commitment to family planning

At the London Summit on Family Planning last year, Malawi committed to raise the country’s contraceptive rate to 60 per cent by the year 2020, with a disproportionate increase among those aged 15 to 24.

“We are a key group for sexual and reproductive health services and this indicator is an excellent measure of what the future will hold for adults in the region,” said Shyreene.

“Allocating sufficient resources is seen as a means to measure the government’s desire to reposition family planning.”

The Malawian Ministry of Health is now creating a budget line on family planning to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of teenagers for 2013–2014 and has also developed a set of youth friendly health services standards in an effort to address the needs of young people.

As world leaders and family planning experts gather in Addis Ababa, Shyreene and other activists will no doubt be watching closely. They will want to know just how serious the international community is when it comes to bringing about full access, full choice and ensuring family planning and HIV services are put high on the agenda for the post-2015 development framework.

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